RUFUS SEWELL (John Murdoch) won critical acclaim for his
television debut in 1994 starring as Will Ladislaw in the BBC
dramatization of George Eliot's "Middlemarch." More
acclaim followed for his performance opposite Emma Thompson and
Jonathan Pryce in Christopher Hampton's film Carrington
and in Thames Television's "Cold Comfort Farm," which
has also enjoyed a worldwide theatrical release.

After studying in London's Central School of Drama, Sewell made
his film debut in 1991 as a Scottish junkie opposite Patsy Kensit
in Twenty-One. Other film credits include Mark Peploe's
adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Victory, opposite Willem
Dafoe and Sam Neill; Kenneth Brannagh's Hamlet, in a scene
opposite Sir John Gielgud; Channel Four Films' lavish adaptation
of Thomas Hardy's The Woodlanders; BBC Films' A Man
of No Importance opposite Albert Finney, and most recently,
Marshall Herskovitz's The Honest Courtesan, an unusual
love story set in the sixteenth century for Fox Searchlight Films.

Sewell made his West End theatrical debut in 1993 as a Czechoslovakian
hustler in "Making It Better," which brought him critical
acclaim and a Best Newcomer Award from the London Critics' Circle.
He then played Septimus Hodge in the original production of Tom
Stoppard's play "Arcadia" at the National Theatre.

In 1995 Sewell made his Broadway debut in the revival of Brian
Friel's "Translations," winning the best reviews among
a cast that included Brian Dennehy and Dana Delany. His other
theatre credits include "Rat in the Skull," a Royal
Court Production at the Duke of York.

Sewell has also been seen on British television in Jack Gold's
"The Last Romantics" for BBC Television, "Gone
to Seed" for central TV, "Dirty Something," "Citizen
Locke" and the BBC's "Henry IV."

When they first met in New York five years ago while doing promotional
chores, Sewell's Dark City nemesis Ian Richardson made the following
prediction: "'With your face,'" I said, "'and the
fact that you can act inside that face, you're going to be a great
big star.' Now in this film I have my prediction proved true,
and it's a pleasure to be back with him again to say it to his
face."